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Robbie Slater demands an end to double-Dutch after 'failed' decade-long experiment

Former Socceroo and outspoken football pundit Robbie Slater has called for an end to the ‘failed’ Dutch experiment and demanded a total change in direction for Australian football after the Socceroos’ World Cup exit.

Former Socceroo and outspoken football pundit Robbie Slater has
called for an end to the ‘failed’ Dutch experiment and demanded a
total change in direction for Australian football after the
Socceroos’ World Cup exit.

Slater praised 2006 Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink, who was the
first of five Dutch coaches to take charge of the national
team.

But the passionate Slater demanded an end to the Dutch influence
Down Under, angrily declaring coaches from the Netherlands have
‘tried to change our culture’.

“There needs to be a whole change of the way we’re thinking, and
how we’re going about producing young players, because these guys
have had an influence on our young coaches as well,” Slater told
FoxSports .

“For me, there needs to be a complete turnaround in where we’re
going, because we’ve spent millions, I’m talking multi-millions,
tens of millions on foreigners.

“And guess what? No foreign coach has ever won the World
Cup.

“So we need our own … we’re going to go back to an Aussie coach
in Graham Arnold and he’s got one massive, massive job ahead of
him.”

While Slater concedes Hiddink’s appointment was a master-stroke
as the Socceroos qualified for the first of four consecutive World
Cups, he believes it was a massive mistake to persist with Dutch
mentors beyond Hiddink.

“It goes way back to when Guus Hiddink took over and qualified
us for 2006 (World Cup) - which was a fantastic experience, and
certainly a warranted and great signing,” he said.

“From that point on, we have trusted the Dutch and I think now,
after this World Cup, we can finally say that the Dutch experiment
has failed.”

Slater pointed to Holland’s own failure to qualify for key
international tournaments to further support his argument: “We
follow the Dutch method, and we haven’t qualified for the last two
Olympics - that is now hurting our national team, and we haven’t
qualified for World Youth Cups either,” he said.

“And neither has Holland, so why on earth would we have been
following the Dutch way?

“We need to find our own style. You can’t come to a country, and
change the culture of a country and I think one of the things
they’ve tried to do.”